Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

“....”

“....”

“And that’s how I became like this. Not being able to age, it’s the curse of time. One of the curses of time.”

Alan then raised an eyebrow as if he just remembered something.

“Oh, and there is something else about the artifacts that I forgot to say! If you manage to survive the after-effects, meaning if your curse isn’t a deadly one, your power will grow stronger in an instant. They say it gets twice as stronger or maybe more. It’s like you go Bomm! Are you still alive? Here you get double your power!”

He then leaned back on his sofa, not caring about the look on Kairen and the team leader’s eyes as they stared at him silently.

“That’s why some people purposely overused their power so that they could get cursed and get stronger. It’s a risky thing to do you know. The power you get is not worth getting cursed for it, or most probably losing your life. It’s as if you are throwing your life away out of greed.”

Alan said as he scratched his chin.

.....

“Hmm... Probably that too was one of the reasons I overused the power? I thought I could do what I wanted if I was a little bit stronger. I don’t know it was too long ago I can’t remember properly.”

Alan’s tone while saying those were casual as if it wasn’t much deal. Yet, his words were not something that the listener could take them lightly.

“....”

“....”

“....”

The three people in the room stared at each other in silence.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that?’

Kairen wondered.

Alan didn’t seem fazed at all, but Kairen, and probably the team leader as well, felt kinda uncomfortable now hearing about the personal past events of someone else’s life.

‘But where did he get the artifact from?’

Now he wanted to know that even more than before.

‘Should I ask that as well?’

Hesitant, Kairen kept contemplating his next words.

“Ahem, so...”

Using the momentary silence as an opportunity to hope into the conversation, team leader Dains gathered the two of their attentions to himself. Thus, Kairen swallowed his question and decided to ask it another time.

“So... If you are done... Can we go back to the main topic?”

In fact, he wanted to ask them what they were talking about. He was the team leader! What do you mean he was left out of such important-looking information?

Alan had talked to him before. He had told him some information regarding the temples and the religion. He had also warned the team leader about the future events that might happen if they fail to stop Phlimns from doing whatever shit they are doing with the temples. However, he wasn’t told about the things that Kairen and Alan were talking about now.

But as the atmosphere in the room and the other two people’s moods didn’t seem well, he decided to keep his questions to himself for now.

“About the temples. You were explaining about them.

“Hmm...”

Alan hummed before nodding his head.

“Those temples weren’t merely some normal worship places.”

Seeing that his conversation with Alan has come to an end, Kairen also signed and sat down on a sofa.

“One of your members guessed right when the subject of the temples was first brought up. They are indeed a symbol of the different unique skills.”

“Huh? Really? They were?”

“Yes.”

“But what about the two temples of Fate and Chaos?”

Alan shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know much about them, but I’ve heard that they are also somehow related to the unique powers. Some said Fate was also another temple for Law. You know the power of Law is different from other kinds of powers that can directly be used in combat. Although it can also be used in battles, it’s more used in other ways to control people and other things like that. That’s why some people said it was like Fate, you could force people to do things with Law as if you are changing their Fate.”

Kairen and team leader Dains listened to Alan’s words with interest.

“But it’s not for sure though. Also, there is already one temple for Law, so why create two for that specific power when the other powers have only one?”

Kairen tilted his head.

“Maybe the power of Law seemed more important or powerful for that religion?”

Alan waved his hand in the air.

“Nah! Actually one of their mottos was about how all powers are equal and none is better than the other.”

Hearing that made Kairen think of Earth, where a lot of people fought for equal rights between genders and races.

‘Eh? Was there some kind of discrimination based on one’s unique skills here or something like that?’

Come to think of it, that wasn’t really unexpected though. People were bound to see themselves as better than the others based on any single stupid thing they thought was worthy or more powerful, be it in this world or another.

“What about the Temple of Chaos?”

Kairen was snapped out of his thoughts by the team leader’s words.

Alan once again shrugged.

“That one was also a question. Some said it was the power of the head of the religion. He had a different power, you remember? Some called his power chaos based on the name of the temple he built.”

“What was his power like?”

Kairen asked as he had been curious about that man since the first time he learned about him.

“Donno!”

Alan shook his head.

“He didn’t really use his power much in front of the others. Most of the things we know about his power are based on the rumors of the people who had seen him the first he appeared. The more time passed, the less he used his power until the day that the religion fell and he disappeared.”

“Oh!”

Team leader Dains glanced at Kairen before asking.

“So, was that man’s power really the power of Chaos?”

Alan sighed again with a face that showed how tired he was from all this religious stuff.

“They said so at first, but then as time passed people started to disagree with that idea. ‘Out leader is such a gentle and kind man why would you give such a nasty name to his beautiful power?’. ‘Out leader has a holy power, how dare you call it something like chaos? Fools!’. Tsk.”

As Alan said that, he changed his voice a little bit to imitate different people’s voices. His voice was filled with annoyance, irritation, and ridicule towards those people as he angrily spat those words.

“They went on saying how ‘holy’ and ‘gentle’ their leader was and that he couldn’t have such a power. ‘You are the fools who are blinded by your powers! Call your powers Chaos instead of our leader’s gentle power!’. Tsk, you are the fool! Bastard! What do you mean by ‘He is the kindest person in the world.’? He is the motherfuckerest motherfucker one could ever see! Gah! ‘He is the savior! The apostle!’ Fuck what savior you brainless shits!”

Listening to Alan’s words while looking at his heated voice, Kairen and team leader Dains had a hard time holding back their laughter. They didn’t know why Alan suddenly started cursing some people from hundreds of years ago, but his face and tone were so funny they couldn’t focus on his words seriously.

“Ahem.”

Team leader Dains coughed awkwardly in an attempt to hold his laughter.

“You talk as if you were there hundreds of years ago and had talked to those believers yourself.”

Kairen also threw some bullshit to Alan to hide his smile.

“....”

Alan closed his mouth after hearing those words. He blinked a few times before turning his head towards Kairen and staring at his eyes.

“....”

“....”

“....”

The room suddenly went silent as the three of them stared at each other without saying any words.

Smile.

Suddenly Alan’s lips curled up into a smile, an awkward smile.

“Anyway!”

And then he looked away from the other two.

“I was talking about the temples.”

“...”

.....

“...”

Neither team leader Dains nor Kairen were listening to him this time. The two of them blinked a few times before looking at each other.

‘No way, right? This man can’t be that old!’

Kairen looked at Alan while having such thoughts, panicked.

‘Haha! No! Noway he is a living fossil!’

Kairen’s lips also curled up to a smile, the same awkward smile.

As if having the exact same thought as Kairen, team leader Dains also started to smile at the same time.

“Haha!”

“Ahem!”

The three people in the room avoided each other’s faces while wearing a smile on their faces.